May 2009

Prostitution sting downtown:

Police in the other Queen City, the real one being Charlotte, NC of course, arrested eight in a craigslist hooker sting. It seems that two girls had been previously robbed at the Millennium Hotel so management called in police to clear the place out. Not all of those arrested were from craigslist but some of them were.

The reason this is a big deal is because the arrests were made this past Thursday which was the 28th of May. craigslist newly monitored adult services section went into effect on the 13th. The erotic services section became defunct on the 20th. Ergo, these arrests as far as craigslist is concerned came from the adult services section. You know, the one that’s supposed to be monitored for illegal activity.

Granted this is the first prostitution arrest I’ve heard about since the change but it does show that it is still going on.

Names and mugshots of those arrested can be found here.

3 men indicted in sexual listing:

Trio Charged With Promoting Prostitution:

I was actually going to do this story just for the new 22 Acacia Avenue section of the site but then I found out that craigslist was involved so now I get to do this story for two sections at once.

Anyway a Hawaiian District Court has indicted Marcus Xavier Arrington, 19, Anthony Terrell Fuller, 20, and Brad Yick Kin Young, 20, of pimping out a 16-year-old girl on craigslist this past December. The girl was a runaway who was allegedly forced to have sex with Arrington and other men six to eight times a day for 10 days in December. Arrington and his buddies are allegedly part of a gang called H-mob. The victim claims that she was abused by Arrington and was afraid not to do what he said.

Since craigslist has changed their erotic services policy I can’t trash them too bad except to say they should have done it a long time ago so what happened to this girl could have been prevented.

Now on to the 22AA section of the post. Consenting? Not on your life. Adult? Not even close. Would this have happened if prostitution was legal? You betcha. There’s always going to be a demand for the young. Again, here’s your ‘victimless’ crime.

Craigslist chief Jim Buckmaster: we’re the victim of a witch-hunt:

craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster slings hyperbole again, this time in the British media. Here’s what he told The Guardian…

“We were just the subjects of a witch-hunt over a certain class of ads,” he said. “We’ve had this recent episode where a grandstanding politician has decided to call us out as criminals in a way that was unfair, unreasonable and unlawful.”

“Journalistic media have no interest in reporting on far larger numbers, and far more graphic ads that exist in their own publications,” he said. “They only have an interest in reporting such ads as they appear on the internet, and on Craigslist in particular.”

Well Jim, I’m neither a grandstanding politician nor a hypocritical media outlet and yet I’ve been calling for craigslist to clean up its act long before either of those entities were. What do you have to say about me Jim? Please enlighten me, I’m dying to know.

Judge shields Craigslist from prosecution in South Carolina:

A federal judge has granted a temporary restraining order against the office of South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster from prosecuting craigslist for aiding and abetting prostitution.

Now this has nothing to do with the first amendment. The restraining order was granted while the merits of craigslst’s lawsuit against McMaster.

So while everyone on the craigslist side of things is claiming some kind of victory for free speech in reality it’s just a formality in legal proceedings.

Man gets 5 years in Craiglist prostitution ring:

No, not the comic book guy. This Alan Moore hails from Milwaukee. 22-year-old Moore was sentenced to 5 years in prison for running a child prostitution ring off of craigslist in Elmhurst, Illinois. The girls he was pimping out were 14 and 16 but he claims they were older. Don’t they always. Moore even had sex with one of the girls. He was previously arrested in Wisconsin for a sex offense involving a 5-year-old boy.

Even though he entered into a plea with prosecutors 5 years is a joke. When he gets out he’ll be 27 and have plenty of time to re-offend.

Not only that but there’s the so-called victimless crime again. No legalization will change that.

Nice clientèle you have there craigslist.